[1] IRB referee manager Paddy O'Brien in Queenstown. Photo by Tracey Roxburgh. Queenstown reporter Tracey Roxburgh interviewed IRB referee manager Paddy O'Brien. But having some things in common helped ease the tension...
I knew IRB referee manager Paddy O'Brien and I would probably get on well together when he told more than 120 members of the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce on Friday how he spent the last 10 minutes of the "nail-biting" World Cup final.
While I hid out in the ladies' room of a local establishment, he put his telly on pause, inserted ear plugs to block the noise from the viaduct, and paced the corridor of his apartment, timing the last minutes of the All Blacks' most crucial match.
- Television Match Official's role to expand [2]
It had, up until that point, been a bit touch and go with O'Brien and me.
It started when he gave his thoughts on "the media".
"They are a pain in the arse."
That, by the way, is a direct quote.
This was followed by another direct quote: "They are bloody lazy. They are lazy because they never write what you say".
All of a sudden, as a member of "the media" covering the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Skyline, I felt decidedly uncomfortable.
My hands started to shake around about the time O'Brien said unless he trusted "the media guys", he would not give interviews.
This did not bode well for me.
Aside from the fact I, too, come from Invercargill and I'm fairly certain his children and I were at the same primary school, O'Brien didn't know me from a bar of soap.
As you would expect from New Zealand's most respected and successful referee - awarded an Order of New Zealand Merit in 2005 for services to refereeing, the same year he was appointed as the IRB's high performance referee manager - much of his speech on Friday was about, arguably, the most talked about person on any rugby field.
He was, as he pointed out early on, "very defensive to referees".
The 2011 RWC was always going to be a challenge, not least because the referee manager was a New Zealander.
"I suggested the IRB look at Mongolia to get a referee manager ... but, you have to come from somewhere and I happen to be from New Zealand."
Despite feeling some added pressure, O'Brien enjoyed the tournament as a whole.
"The great thing [about RWC 2011] is the way New Zealand people embraced the tournament.
"I think Wayne Smith summed it up best - New Zealand has lost [its] shyness."
O'Brien was "delighted" with the performance of referees in the World Cup, saying it had "gone to another level".
For the first time O'Brien and his team visited all 20 teams involved in the 2011 RWC and "preached the big five priorities" - the tackle breakdown area, the offside law, scrummaging, obstruction of the law and foul play.
All teams entered the tournament with an understanding of how games would be refereed - and all referees received feedback after every match, from their bosses and the media.
However, one referee received more than his fair share of attention on television, radio and in print.
Wayne Barnes, the referee during the All Blacks' shock exit from the 2007 World Cup, was constantly under the microscope.
"The treatment Wayne Barnes got during this World Cup was nothing short of disgraceful.
"Wherever he went, he copped it.
"That was quite frustrating."
Meanwhile, World Cup referees in charge of games at Forsyth Barr Stadium - known as Otago Stadium during RWC - were "gobsmacked", O'Brien said.
The new stadium hosted three pool matches in September, refereed by Bryce Lawrence, Jonathan Kaplan and Romain Poite.
When asked by a member of the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce what feedback he had received on the stadium, O'Brien responded "one of the things they couldn't believe was the noise.
"They had never heard noise like it.
"They kept coming back and saying it was incredible."
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